According to a draft opinion obtained by Politico, the US Supreme Court has tentatively voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion statewide in the United States. Politico said on Monday evening that it had gotten an initial majority opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated among the court on February 10 in what looked to be a remarkable and unusual leak.
The decision overturns Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established the constitutional right to abortion, as well as Planned Parenthood v Casey, a 1992 decision that mainly sustained that right. In the conference among the justices, four other Republican-appointed justices — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – sided with Alito.
One of the justices is given the majority opinion and creates a draft after an initial vote among the justices following the oral argument. The document is subsequently distributed among the justices. The vote alignment can alter between the first vote and the release of the ruling. When the court publishes a decision, it becomes definitive. However, if it is upheld, it will find in Mississippi’s favor in a high-profile case involving the state’s bid to outlaw most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That would be the end of the 50-year promise of nationwide reproductive rights protection, allowing each state to decide whether to restrict or prohibit abortion.
Several Republican-led states have already implemented severely stringent abortion legislation in anticipation of a judgment by the Supreme Court, which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority thanks to three Trump nominees. Politico says it got a copy of the draft opinion from a source familiar with the Mississippi case’s procedures. The draft ruling is 98 pages long, including 118 footnotes and a 31-page annex summarizing historical state abortion laws.
The Supreme Court declined to confirm what would be the biggest security violation in the court’s history – in one of the most important verdicts in decades that is destined to exacerbate America’s deep political schisms. Following the Politico piece, social media images showed a mass of demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court late Monday night, holding signs and chanting: “my body, my choice.” According to polls, only a small percentage of Americans want Roe v. Wade overturned. As per AP VoteCast, 69 percent of voters in the 2020 presidential election believe the Supreme Court should uphold the Roe v Wade decision, while only 29% believe it should be overturned.
